Rainfall
by Graph
Summary: A chance meeting at a graveyard. Sad shortfic. Post 2-4, extremely slight AU. Implied Phoenix/Mia and Diego/Mia. BIG spoilers for 3-5 and 3-4 if you know what you're looking for.


"I can't believe I'm here."

Phoenix jabbed the button to turn on his windshield wipers. It had been a long time since he'd seen rain like this; it came in buckets and barrels and God-knows-what-else, drenching everything and refusing to stop. The familiar, icy pitter-patter of the droplets on his glass made him shiver, and he scanned for a radio station. Finding that he was out of range, he let out a long, nostalgic sigh.

He had hoped to never need to come here again.

The lawyer tried to distract himself from the purpose of this trip, but it was burned so deeply into the very core of him that little else seemed real. Drumming his hands on the steering wheel, he surrendered. There was no point in forgetting. The nightmares would remind him, as they always had.

That bleak, desolate night when she fell cold and still, empty. He felt the warmth leave her palm, saw tears well up in her sister's broken eyes. He had caught the man that had ruined their lives, true. Phoenix had even been invited to watch his execution. Somehow, he knew she wouldn't have approved.

And, even now, he respected her like an authority figure. She had never failed to impress him with her commanding air and down-to-earth mindset. He had taken on some of those qualities, as many people told him, and there were things one could learn from Mia which were beyond the grasp of mortal vocabulary.

Perhaps she'd become too much of an influence. Why else would he drive 70 miles on a trip that included, apart from this, a greasy burger and side of oily potato slivers?

That question was one that Phoenix just wasn't ready to answer.

XXX

Delicately clutching the fresh rose from a nearby florist, the defense attorney strode alongside the rows of headstones, their grim engravings flickering in the haze. He silently picked his way around the plaques, occasionally pausing to brush the wind-blown rain from his equally frigid eyes. When he had found the one he sought, he bent down beside it and read the cryptic message:

_Mia Fey_

_Lawyer, Mentor, Friend, Sister_

_Heir to the Master_

_1989-2016_

There was a small jade Magatama imbedded in the copper, and a hole had been drilled inside its center, indicating where one should put their flowers. Phoenix placed his offering into the watery well, coughed, and closed his eyes.

"I… I'm not completely sure why I came today. Don't ask me why, but I feel closer to you here… Like we're not so far apart. I miss that. And, maybe it's because of the Engarde case, maybe it's something else, but… I just feel like I wasn't ready to lose you. Not when we were so close." He brushed speckled rain from his cheek, felt himself hang his head. It had all happened so fast.

An object upon the gravestone caught his eye for a moment. It was a porcelain coffee mug, overflowing with pure, crystalline dew. A duo of roses was submerged within the liquid, one a bloody red, the other a satin white. It was a beautiful little scene, the rainfall trickling from the plants' intricate petals, something so picturesque that Phoenix took a moment to watch the water spill over the leaves.

At that time, he couldn't have known who had placed the arrangement upon her grave, who had loved her enough to capture her serenity. But, across the field of lilies that separated the Fey graves from more nondescript families, sat that one person in the rain.

Phoenix, after paying his respects, noticed the trench coat-covered mourner, who had been sitting somberly on a concrete bench. Few people would just stay outside in such dismal weather without a hood or hat of some kind, but the man wore nothing but a strange visor over his eyes. The goggles gave off an infrared glow, like a heating lamp, and its three horizontal lenses glowed crimson in the dusky shade. He had shockingly white hair, and it looked as though it only sagged as it did now in severe weather conditions. A slight black stubble shrouded his lips.

Phoenix was half-terrified and half-saddened by the stranger's determination to drench himself, and he asked if the masked man had a ride home.

"Yeah," he said, "but I'm fine staying here for a while."

The spiky-haired lawyer shrugged, gave a solemn goodbye to Mia, and wandered towards his car, occasionally looking back to watch the sitting man shrink into the distance. He had looked quite ill, and Phoenix hoped he would get out of the cold.

XXX

"Hey, Kitten. Guess who…?"

He knelt down beside her headstone. "I guess I just met your little protégée. Knowing you, he'll be quite an opponent… when we meet. I know I look… different now. It's just something we'll get used to. But I have to go in a few. Doc says I can't be out in a storm with my new eyes. Not waterproof, I guess." He ran his fingers through the water in the mug. "…I really miss you."

Godot stood and strode away, ignoring the water seeping into his socks, ignoring the bus he'd neglected to catch.


End file.
